Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

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Kaguya-sama: Love is War boldly stakes its claim as the king of the "rom-com" genre, and I daresay few can robustly challenge it.

The story follows Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya - two prodigous students attending a high school for the social elite - who, despite their academic brilliance, are utter fools when it comes to love. To complicate things further, they have feelings for each other (of course, right?)

This results in a great number of hilarious situations, with each of them trying hare-brained schemes to get the other to confess, which is absolutely where the manga thrives; there is humour around every corner, and it ... lands more or less every single time.

In a manga featuring this kind of setting, you'd perhaps expect a not-insignificant number of the characters to be haughty and generally insufferable, but that's not the case here - all of them are lovable goofballs in some way, particularly the main cast. Side characters are given plenty of love too.

The art is consistently excellent, always elevating the emotion evoked by any particular scene, whether it's humorous, sweet or just plain sad.

If you had to criticise something about this manga, it would be the plot. The majority of the early chapters are quite episodic and don't strictly follow an overarching story. This changes around the halfway point, and I would say that the more the manga leans on narrative and drama, the weaker it becomes - this is particularly evident during the final arc. While the ending portion is the weakest part, the story is still wrapped up in a pleasing way overall.

To this day, it still pains me that this series is over. IMO, despite any shortcomings, it fully deserves the top spot as far as "rom-coms" are concerned.

Plot: 7
Characters: 9
Art: 9.5
Enjoyment: 10

The initial appeal of Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen was a funny romcom with great humour, and an interesting premise. I really loved the premise, which was to make the students try to make each other confess. I loved it. However, that was only until chapter 130 or so, the manga took a drama stage. Instead of continuing the relationship, it takes a big dive into garbage writing. The initial appeal had disappeared, and what I had been reading was filled with boring old rom com drama. If it had continued the humorous and romantic relationships, then I would've given Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: ... Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, a perfect 10/10.

The story is simple. Shirogane and Kaguya, are in the student council. They both have this feeling for each other, and they try to make others confess. I was very interested in this idea. It was much different from your usual romcoms, so I had high expectations, y'know? Chapters 1-130 were a 10/10, no doubt, but straight after that, it gets horrible, as I mentioned before. Everything gets worse and worse. Drama was the thing that I did not want Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen to use. Well, unluckily for me, that happened.

Chapters that stop the drama, continuing the manga from chapter 262 and so on were trying to tie all of the screws that were loose, but it just didn't work out. The initial charm of the series had been gone. The humour was dry and unfunny, and most importantly, the side character's relationships were rushed. We never get a proper story for side character's relationships.

The ending: Horrifying. I absolutely despised the ending. We never get a proper conclusion for Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, we only have the student council team graduating, that's it. We don't get to see the outcome of everyone's relationships.

The characters? Still likeable. Shirogane & Ishigami are my favourite characters. One positive thing I can say about the drama is that they didn't really change their characters, which was good. I basically liked every character. No characters were unlikeable, except for one of Kaguya's cousins, and her family.

The art is splendid. The coloured pages are awesome. Each panel had been taken the utmost care of. Nothing looked particularly rushed.

A 10/10 wouldn't be enough for my enjoyment. I loved every single chapter of Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, and was just way too hyped for the next chapter. After chapter 130, things get negative, sadly. I get really bored, as Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen turns from one of the best (if not best) romcom anime, to an absolute garbage dumpster. All of the things that I loved, humour and story, were thrown into the bin.

Seriously though. I've seen so many anime that I loved so much, but just don't reach a good conclusion, or get trash later on. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen is part of the "wasted potential" anime/manga. I really am disappointed. I don't hate Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, I'm just disappointed straight after the duel confessions arc.

They say timing matters, we're in the age of continuous social media exposure, and the internet is at an all-time high and that's what made Kaguya Sama stand out.
BUT !!
The plot is your typical hate-to-love cynical story, from the beginning chapters it's visible that Kaguya Sama is inspired by 𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗞𝗢𝗜 at multiple stages including the basic theme of using love as a tug of war and influence.
The humour is bland most of the time.

In short, Kaguya Sama lacks genuineness and originality.
Overall, One shouldn't go by the hype and the herd.
Kaguya sama is an average read.

Now it depends if you're a newcomer or you haven't seen ... or read such plots, you might find Kaguya sama as the extreme best.
Hence I mentioned it's all about timing.

I wouldn't recommend it. You're better off reading or seeing plots much much better than this, but then again some people have a side of cheap thrills.
Your choice!